FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR B. E. FERNOW. 



It takes 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



RETROGRADE MOVEMENT. 



June 17th the Trustees of Cornell Uni- 

 versity abandoned the trust placed in their 

 hands by the State, of conducting a College 

 of Forestry. 



This unexpected, precipitate abandon- 

 ment of a successful educational depart- 

 ment was the result of the veto by the Gov- 

 ernor of the usual annual appropriation 

 of $10,000 for the maintenance of the col- 

 lege, which appropriation the Legislature 

 had made without any opposition. The 

 Governor acted without previous notice and 

 after the Legislature had adjourned. The 

 responsibility of legislating this State in- 

 stitution out of existence falls, therefore, 

 entirely on him ; an arbitrary exercise of 

 the veto power, which was probably not 

 foreseen as possible when it was given. 



Altogether, the friends of a rational for- 

 est policy for the State of New York have 

 good reason to be dissatisfied with the lack 

 of interest or the ill will on the part of the 

 Executive, who, on the other hand, has al- 

 ways given a willing ear to legislation in- 

 imical to forestry interests. 



Under Governor Black's administration 

 there was hope of a sensible and definite 

 forest policy for the State. The Forest 

 Preserve Board was created, to establish 

 the State Forest Preserve, which was in 

 the end to comprise 3 million acres. Funds 

 for its purchase were judiciously appro- 

 priated and spent ; the Forest Commission 

 was properly supported ; and to prepare for 

 an ultimate rational forest management a 

 forestry school was endowed in Cornell 

 University and a demonstration of forestry 

 methods instituted in the Adirondacks. 

 Under Governor Roosevelt all these agen- 

 cies of a rational forest policy made fur- 

 ther progress and were well supported. 



What has Governor Odell done? 



He has used his veto power to annul or 

 restrict all these measures. The Forest 

 Preserve Board still exists in name, to be 

 sure, because the Legislature did not abol- 

 ish it ; but the Governor last year vetoed 

 the appropriation for further purchases and 

 this year the Forest Preserve Board did not 

 dare to lift its diminished head and ask for 

 recognition of its existence and objects. 



We now learn from the newspapers that 

 the New York Central Railroad contem- 

 plates buying tracts in the Adirondacks for 

 tie timber; and the State will have to pay 

 for it! 



For the Forest Commission the Governor 

 had a veto of an appropriation of $6,000 for 



reclamation of waste areas so auspiciously 

 begun, a veto of an appropriation of $2,000 

 for additional forest surveys, a veto of the 

 salary of an assistant superintendent of for- 

 ests ; all retrograde movements. Last of 

 all, the entire appropriation for the State 

 College of Forestry at Cornell was cut off 

 by him. This is perhaps the worst blow, 

 for it not only touches the interest of for- 

 estry most keenly, but the honor of the 

 State; for the State invited Cornell Uni- 

 versity to institute this school and there is 

 a moral obligation arising for the State 

 toward the University as well as of the 

 University toward the public, which it has 

 invited to prepare and send their sons to 

 the study of this new profession. 



Is not this little short of repudiation of a 

 debt? Under such abuse of the veto power 

 any State institution may cease to exist at 

 the will of the Governor at a moment's 

 notice. This was certainly not intended 

 when the people gave the Governor that 

 power, which was given to prevent "extrav- 

 agant or obnoxious legislation." 



What was the reason for this overruling 

 of the expressed will of the Legislature, 

 which had without dissenting voice voted 

 the regular supplies for this State institu- 

 tion of 5 years' standing? Was the Col- 

 lege unsuccessful ? The records do not 

 show it. The College was remarkably suc- 

 cessful in numbers and results. It doubled 

 in number every year from 4 in the first to 

 70 in the past year. Its graduates and a 

 number, of special students, and even under- 

 graduates, have found ready and profitable 

 employment in Federal, State and private 

 employ. Indeed, in numbers, at least, this 

 College was ahead of all the German and 

 French forestry schools; and no fault has 

 ever been found, nor criticism heard of the 

 College as an educational institution of the 

 highest order. What, then, is the reason 

 this successful branch of education, in 

 which the State of New York and Cornell 

 University were the leaders, had to be so 

 suddenly cut off? 



The Governor did not attach a reason to 

 his veto, as would appear proper, but the 

 newspapers were inspired to supply it. The 

 reason assigned is, that the College had 

 been criticised by a legislative committee 

 in its methods of conducting the demonstra- 

 tion in the Adirondacks as wrong from 

 the standpoint of scientific forestry. Who" 

 are the judges? Is the wisdom of a legis- 

 lative committee on professional methods 

 and questions to be taken in preference to 



i47 



